A transportation network for vehicles can include several interconnected routes on which the vehicles travel between locations. For example, a transportation network may be formed from interconnected railroad tracks with rail vehicles traveling along the tracks. The vehicles may travel according to schedules that dictate where and when the vehicles are to travel in the transportation network.
As the vehicles travel in the transportation network, one or more events may occur that cause a slowdown in travel of the vehicles, such as mechanical problems with the vehicles, damage to the routes of the transportation network, gridlock (e.g., a traffic jam) of the vehicles, and the like. When such events occur, some network planning systems allow an operator to re-route or otherwise change how the vehicles travel in the transportation network in an effort to increase the flow of movement of the vehicles or eliminate the gridlock.
Such re-routing and changing, however, may not be an instantaneous decision by the operator. Due to the interdependencies between the vehicles in the transportation network, the operator may need to consider a wide variety of factors in deciding how to change the movements of the vehicles. The selection and implementation of changes to the movements of the vehicles may take a significant amount of time. The operator may be unable to select and implement changes to the movements of the vehicles “on-the-fly” because the operator may be unable to consider the many potential outcomes of changing the movements of even a small number of the vehicles. Implementing changes on-the-fly can result in the operator making a bad situation worse by slowing down the flow of movement even more and/or increasing the congestion in the transportation network.
Moreover, as the operator is deciding on a plan of action to take with respect to changing movements of the vehicles, at least some of the vehicles may continue to move. For example, the operator may be basing his or her decisions on a static state of the vehicles in the transportation network that is no longer accurate. As a result, any changes determined by the operator may no longer work to a current state of the vehicles that is different than the previously examined static state.
A need exists for a system and method that permits the modification of schedules of vehicles traveling in a transportation network while gaining an understanding of the potential impact of different proposed changes to the movements of the vehicles, and also while considering changing positions of the vehicles while deciding which changes to implement in the movements of the vehicles.